“The guy from Oasis”: Why Noel Gallagher hated playing Wembley
To be an Oasis fan, you have to get pretty used to the idea of contradictions.
While the music feels as though it’s brimming with truth, a lot of what the Gallagher brothers say outside of that can rarely be corroborated. Whether it’s a wild anecdote fuelled by drink and drugs, a confession of fandom or dislike for a fellow musician or maybe even a moral code of the band, it’s likely whatever they say would be contradicted soon after.
Allow me to provide an example. Noel Gallagher once said, “I hate little gigs. The spectacle of those big gigs, the gathering of all those people, and Oasis is best experienced with 50,000 other Oasis fans. That’s it.”
A fair point, one that tracks when you look at their career. From 1996 onwards, Oasis were chartered on a course that only ended in stadiums. Knebworth ruined the thought of any intimacy at an Oasis show, and only crowds of tens of thousands awaited, where the anthemic choruses of this once-in-a-generation band could be belted out at the top of their lungs.
Look at recent history as well: After 15 years away, the Gallagher brothers reunited and pulled off a truly seismic comeback tour that made some of the biggest stadiums in the world look like a living room. For the best part of three decades, this band have been made for stadiums, and they know it.
Or do they? Is this belief just another big contradiction? Well, maybe it is. Because, like I said, you’ve got to be prepared for a few if you’re willing to dedicate your fandom to Oasis, and this whole attitude of loudly ripping up stadiums like they are 250 capacity venues might just be a big joke.
In 2021, before Oasis proved they would always be a stadium band, Noel Gallagher was also heard saying, “I did the stadium rock thing once, and I don’t think I’m capable of doing it. Halfway through my first tour, I’d sold out the O2, and it didn’t really sit that well with me”.
He highlighted why, “Because a) I felt I hadn’t earned it and b) I thought people were coming to see the guy from Oasis, and he better be doing these fucking eight songs! Which, of course, I didn’t, and I have never played there since. I’m more comfortable in theatres, where you can engage with an audience slightly. Whereas in arenas, an arena crowd will expect a certain kind of delivery. Which I’m not capable of doing.”
This was, of course, Noel Gallagher of the High Flying Birds talking and not Oasis. This temporary distaste for stadium shows was rooted in his desire to be taken more seriously as a solo artist and not just an Oasis tribute band, but now that time has passed, and Noel has earned the respect he craved, the moment is ripe for him to return to his brother and prove that, really, there is no place he’d rather be than a jam-packed stadium. That is, until ten years later, when his mind will change…again.
